Strategy Or Culture? It's Not A Competition.

In a recent mentoring conversation with a CEO about his efforts to build sustainably high levels of performance, he suggested that  if he could get the culture “right”,  then the numbers would take care of themselves.  The famous maxim “Culture will trump Strategy” was mentioned, and it was suggested that the work I was doing with him on aligning his teams' behaviour and ensuring that his Leadership development was embedding the agreed behaviours was a reinforcement of that quote.

Imagine the CEOs surprise then when I replied with “….be careful that doesn’t become your excuse for not having a strategy, and having an emphasis just on culture won’t guarantee the numbers if the “players on the team can’t play!”

The ensuing conversation – and it was indeed a real one,  lead to the understanding, that in order for any team or organisation to be truly capable of consistently exceeding targets, or business plans, or expectations,  the Leaders will need to ensure that equal amounts of efforts are assigned to both strategy – particularly the execution, and culture.

Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to work with not only a number of CEOs and senior managers, but also with elite sports coaches coaching at the highest levels in AFL, Rugby League and Rugby Sevens. May I be so bold as to suggest that a team without a game plan, low levels of fitness and with team members with low levels of competence will have little chance of delivering exceptional results – regardless of the culture. Equally, a highly talented or competent team whose individuals become selfish, turn on each other or blame others when under pressure, will have similar challenges with delivering sustainable success.

My observations and experiences  suggest that this challenge will prevail in both sport and the corporate environment.

It is also my experience that Unstoppable teams balance and focus on competence andbehaviours (Strategy and Culture ) to ensure sustainably high levels of capability. They do not set one above the other. Whilst there is no doubt that at any given moment one or the other will need more attention, it is done within a “total capability” context.

These  unstoppable teams are characterised by leaders that provide not only strategic clarity, but develop an environment in which individuals are continually looking for ways to develop their skills and competence as well as ensuring the respective team and the team members have clarity on their purpose, what success looks like ( and how we track progress on that ), agreement on which behaviours are to be rewarded, recognised and avoided, and work continually on building high levels of trust within the team.

Accordingly, such an environment allows for the real conversations to be had about performance.

Progressing from Good to Great and ultimately Unstoppable requires the bringing together of competence and behaviour - Strategy and Culture are teammates – not adversaries!